Miscellaneous May

One day, while Catherine and I were walking laps on our property, we found this little guy making his way down to the pond:

A tiny turtle!

After admiring it, Catherine carried it to the pond, where it quickly slid into the water.

After the end of studying The King of the Golden City, Catherine made this lovely cake:

She decorated it herself.

Luscious strawberries began to appear:

Their new location near the house helped greatly.

Oh, that looks yummy!

At the end of a semester of art class, we celebrated with doughnuts:

They were enjoying this immensely.

Anne and Catherine showed off their final art project.

We saw some cool storm clouds while driving one day:

We stopped on the side of the country road to take the picture.

All of the kids got to do Lego Club:

Anthony, Catherine, Joseph, and Dominic showed off their creations.

Anne

This was Anthony's first time participating and he was so proud to put his creation in the display case at the library!

We met friends at the playground one day:

It was a game of chase!

Full-speed ahead.

Dominic took a break with a friend.

We go to the playground and what do the boys do?  Climb trees!

Girl hug!

We had two little cousins over for a couple days:

They checked out the chickens.

They climbed the hay bales.

They went for a ride in the big, yellow wagon.

Courtesy of Anne and Anthony.

Balthaser and Anthony had a sword fight.

They did each other in.

One day, we used another set of Braum's Book Buddies rewards:

Ice cream is good, very, very good.

The Rest of May

In the middle of May, we went to the First Holy Communion of Dan's niece.  During the Mass, the tornado sirens went off twice, so it was quite exciting and memorable.  Thank goodness, no actual tornado! 

Isabella, Olivia, Anne, and Catherine.

The kids were all happy to see Grandma.

Dan with his nephew, Balthaser.

Dan's brother's family with Fr. Sam Pinkerton.

Catherine has been working on Science, even after we were all done with the rest of school.  It is nice because she can focus on it more.  

Catherine with her lentil "forest," that she grew from lentils we got at the grocery store.

One evening an airplane began to swoop down low over our property and then fly just over the trees to the north, then make a big loop around and come again, each time moving a bit more west.  It was a cropduster working on a field across the road to the north of us.  The kids loved watching the airplane and it was like having our own private air show!  Here's a short video of one of the passes the pilot made over our house:

 One day, all of a sudden, I realized I wasn't sure where Anthony was.  After a search, this is where we found him:

Time for a snooze.

A picture of our grotto, with the irises blooming in front and the roses behind:

 Now, with kids in the picture:

 The kids playing at the playhouse:

Anne and Anthony:

At the end of May, I took a few pictures of a storm that was rapidly approaching.

From the front yard.

From the deck.

After the storm, it was all clear and sunny:

Hanging out on the railing.

Weird Weather In April

One day towards the end of April, we had some strange weather.  It was rainy, but then it just poured down so much rain all at once, that our yard was flooded.  We had streams circling all around the house and almost a pond in the backyard.  The water all joined together to the west of our house and streamed its way down to the real pond.

The flooded backyard.

 Then it started to hail:

It got quite noisy.

No lounging that day!

After the hail stopped, this intense fog rolled in.  It did not last very long.

What a weird sight.

Then the sun came out briefly:

Sun shining on the "pond."

Looked like snow on the deck!

We just watched it all and marveled.

Definitely a weird weather day!

April Ice Storm

In the second week of April, we had an ice storm.  It was strange to see ice covering everything amidst green grass and buds and flowers.  We did not lose any trees, thank goodness. 

Icy tree in the midst of green grass.

The redbud tree.

Icicles on the mailbox.

The fence looked neat with all of the tiny icicles hanging down. 

Flowers in ice.

This one almost looked a little dangerous!